


Dawn Rises

by dogtit



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Kairi Swears A Lot (like a lot)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 11:04:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17548478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogtit/pseuds/dogtit
Summary: She knows he’s been holding back. There’s no way they’re at a standstill, not when Kairi’s been keeping her own cards close to her chest. She's got gas in the tank for days if it means keeping Lea, Ventus, Sora, everyone safe.“Fine. You’ll do,” the Seeker says, a trace of disgust in his voice. “Come, then. Show me anguish, Princess.”--Kairi and Lea encounter Seekers of Darkness. Things get a little out of hand.





	Dawn Rises

**Author's Note:**

> i was out of internet for like a week so i wrote up this little 'behind the scenes' oneshot before 'Midnight's update tomorrow. 
> 
> i guess you could read this as sort of canon divergent speculation for kh3, but its intention is to be read as a sort of companion piece to Till the Stroke of Midnight. this takes place an undetermined amount of time before chapter 9, Expectations, though it doesn't have spoilers for any of them. 
> 
> i know nomura wont give us the good kairi content we deserve so by god im gonna write my own

Flower and steel. The shriek of metal chewing against metal. The stink of charred wood, old dirt, and new leather mixes in her nose like death; a cologne that turns her stomach worse than the iron tang of blood on the back of her tongue. Kairi’s arms scream as she digs her heels in, pushing back with a deep throated yell. It’s validating to hear the vicious, frustrated snarl from her opponent, his voice made tinny from inside of his helmet.

“That all you got, buddy?!” Kairi taunts, putting her weight into her toes, adjusting Destiny’s Embrace in her hands. The grip of her Keyblade has always felt like sunwarm sand, soft and fine; where she’d expect raw grit or irritation, it slides and soothes like silt on the shore. She can wield it for hours and hours on end--and has, thanks to Merlin’s rigorous training--and still not want to let it go.

“You stubborn little brat,” the Seeker across from her grits. Kairi can see herself in the oilsheen reflection of his helmet. “Last chance to get out of my way, girl; I don’t care about  _you._  I want  _Ventus_.”

It chills Kairi to the bone to hear it, then sparks anger. She snorts like a bull, channeling a Firaga in Destiny's Embrace and sending it flying for the Seeker. She pumps more magic than she means to, and the fireball doubles in size after she's sent it on its course, charring grass and stone alike as the Seeker scrambles to duck out of its way, cursing up a storm. Kairi doesn't bother to ask what the Seeker wants with Ventus; she already knows. What better vessel than an empty body?

(No one bothers to ask Kairi, but she worries. She worries about Ventus so damn much. Her heart has vague memories of him when she slept inside Sora’s heart, too; warm wind and gentle hands against her own, the both of them curled up like kittens. He was a little more aware than her, and a little less. They traded shifts. Ventus was a whisper thin voice of dreams calming her. Ventus was the angry, terrified screams when Sora had torn his own heart out to set hers free. Ventus was the desperate comfort as her own heart had writhed in pain from the Keyblade of Heart's invasion, severing her connection with Sora, with Ventus too.

Kairi misses Ventus like her memories of Hollow Bastion, like her grandmother. She has snippets of what was, what could be, and wants them so badly she wants to claw off her own skin.

No one's asked. No one bothers to. It's better, if they think that Kairi doesn't know Ventus at all.)

“You will  _literally_ have to go through me first,” Kairi says simply.

She holds her Keyblade like Master Yen Sid taught her, teeth toward the ground and her knees bent. Adrenaline rocks in her veins like the currents of lighting as Lea goes toe to toe with a blonde haired woman Naminé had quailed at. The Savage Nymph cackles as she practically slaps Lea around, dragging him through the mud. Lea's stubborn determination keeps him on his feet, but the Keyblade isn't like his chakrams, and while he knows the moves his opponent makes before she does, if Lea can't land a hit...eventually, the Nymph will tire him out.

(Kairi worries. Of course she does.)

The Seeker across from her doesn’t say anything for a long moment. He lets the Keyblade shaped mess of gears and chains rest against his shoulder during it, appraising her. Kairi swallows back another mouthful of blood, breathing through her teeth and out of her recently set nose, and she waits like Merlin taught her. Is the Seeker assessing her? She's done the same to him.

She knows he’s been holding back. There’s no way they’re at a standstill, not when Kairi’s been keeping her own cards close to her chest. She's got gas in the tank for days if it means keeping Lea, Ventus, Sora,  _everyone_  safe.

“Fine. You’ll do,” the Seeker says, a trace of disgust in his voice. “Come, then. Show me  _anguish_ , Princess.”

He sinks into the ground. Kairi inhales, tightens the grip on Destiny’s Embrace, and when she feels the Seeker springing up behind her, the cacophony of energy singing his approach.

_He’s an assassin._  A dirty player. Kairi’s sussed it out from their skirmish, recognized the way he danced and toyed with her like Lea did early in their training. So against her common sense, she does not make a move to protect her back.  _He’ll try to fake you out--_

He’s gone. The energy shifts and he plunges above her.

_\--and go for the throat!_

Kairi swings Destiny’s Embrace and she swings it hard, harder than the Seeker thought she would; he’s bounced up by the first, and propelled backward with her second swing. His heels leave furrows in the soft ground as he digs them in, shoulders heaving.

Something in her heart—maybe a thread that Ventus touched when they'd been sheltered in Sora together—sings white hot hatred, agony, fear. Try as she might, Kairi staggers a little at the resonance, copper bile stinging in her throat as she blinks sweat out of her eyes. She's never been good with processing the darker things; it's a physical punishment to actually  _feel_  true anger or sorrow, since her heart is the antithesis of these emotions.

(Whoever said that the Light was wholly good had never been burdened with the weight of its splendor; Kairi carries a sun in her chest and burns all the more for the shades it casts. She doesn't feel human sometimes, when she has to remember what sadness feels like, when she has to remind herself that disappointment and annoyance are allowed, that she  _needs_  them just as much as optimism and hope.)

They clash again, meeting each other in the middle. Kairi fakes him out twice, Destiny's Embrace walloping him hard across the chest and stomach, and she even gets dirty and kicks the bastard where  _everyone_  hurts. Where finesse fails, Kairi's got scrap and grit. Where experience is thin, Kairi has instincts.

Where the Seeker throws his Darkness, Kairi throws her Light.

Their fight takes them far from Lea and the Savage Nymph, deep into Merlin's secret training grounds—where they were  _meant_  to be safe, her and Lea both, and they weren't, so what the fuck, Merlin!--bounding after the other through trees, knocking each other through boulders, until Kairi's legs feel like jelly and her body is one solid ache of torn muscles and dregs of magic. The Seeker isn't fairing much better, half his coat ripped from her attacks and his chest bared, slick with blood that shines low in the eternal sunset of Merlin's pocket dimension.

They're both heaving for breath. Kairi's heart feels like it's going to burst from adrenaline before Naminé's slumbering, worried influence pulses slow, echoing, coaxing her own to slow down enough for her to get her head back in the game. Naminé's so sweet, she doesn't even realize it; she's fast asleep, tucked safe in a place Kairi can only reach in her dreams, but still she stirs every now and then when Kairi pesters her _._

_You exist, you're here, you're perfect,_  Kairi thinks hazily, begging Naminé to listen to her even now. Saying  _thank you_  only makes Naminé want to disappear more.

(She worries, worries, worries, worries--)

“You,” grates the Seeker, run ragged, snapping Kairi back to reality, “really  _are_  her successor. No one else ever gave me such a  _fight_.”

“What—what do you mean? Are you talking about Master Aqua?” Thunder and lightning punctuate her question; Kairi tunes out the harpy shriek echoes from Lea's opponent as best as she's able to, gripping Destiny's Embrace harder. “You met her before, didn't you!? What'd you _do to her!?_ ”

“ _Me?_  I didn't do a thing but spar with her a time or two,” the Seeker drawls. “She's got herself to blame for where she is.”

“You  _asshole!_ “ Kairi shrieks.

Even if it hurts her heart, Kairi rides the waves of rage and sprints forward, Light filling her up with power. Her burst of energy catches the Seeker off guard, and so does her strength; he grunts in shock when her first one handed strike cracks against against his Keyblade hard enough to draw sparks. He needs both hands as their blades lock teeth, drawing up his Darkness against her Light.

Wind whips around them. In Kairi's soul something raises its head from sleep, a curious, magnetic pull in her stomach. She barely notices it as she bares her teeth up at the Seeker, screaming as she pushes and pushes and  _pushes._ Clots of dirt and torn grass pile up around his boots as Kairi shoves.

The Light is too much; it's a second from faltering. So Kairi funnels what remains of her surge in her left hand until it crackles visibly in her veins. She cold clocks the son of a bitch, helmet and all, just like Riku taught her, throwing all her weight into it. A flare of light appears the minute she makes contact with glass, metal, bone, and skin, and the Seeker's thrown back with a startled roar, bouncing against the ground until he skids to a halt on all fours, trembling.

Kairi trembles too.  _Mistake_ , she thinks grimly. Her wrist hurts like nothing else, her knuckles busted and bruised and the skin raw and peeling, bloody; her fingers are swollen. Even thinking about moving them makes her want to hurl from the pain.

Kairi looks up when she hears the Seeker start to laugh, raspy and almost hysterical. He pushes himself up on his feet. His helmet is starting to vanish into smoke.

“Oh, yeah, you're  _exactly_  the kind of little bitch she'd pick,” the Seeker rasps. “ _She_  was the biggest pain in my ass. Just like  _you're_  turning out to be. Well...like I said. Never hurts to have a backup.”

Kairi braces herself to lunge, snarling her words as the Seeker's mask crumbles to ash: “Back up for  _what_ , you piece of--”

Naminé looks from behind her eyes in that instant, woken faintly:  _Sora?_

It's his face and the whisper soft voice of Naminé that catch Kairi off guard. She knows that the Seeker's just a fraud; Sora doesn't have black hair, Sora doesn't have gold eyes, Sora doesn't have the capability to put that twisted, scared sneer of a smile on. The ground bucks beneath her and Kairi falters, for a second. A heartbeat.

_No!_  Naminé screams inside, and her sight goes black.

Kairi tumbles head over heels as she plummets down, landing in a messy sprawl against stained glass. The sky is as pitch as the Seeker's hair as he drifts down with eerie grace. Kairi doesn't look down, knowing with dread what she'll find; her own images, her heart's station. Still, she forces herself to study it as she scrambles to her feet and the Seeker touches down, flakes of paint and light peeling away. The station rumbles and Kairi grinds her teeth so hard she nearly bites into the sides of her tongue as her heart twists in agony.

Parallel, to her sleeping image is that of the Seeker's, the look-a-like's. He brings nothing but writhing tendrils of darkness coating against her— _their...?_ \--station, like it's all he's ever known. How lonely, Kairi thinks dazedly. She shakes away her empathy as the twisting heat in her torso steadily builds, angry and red hot behind her eyes.

She struggles with her words; “What...are you doing to my...”

“Isn't it obvious, Princess?” The Seeker tilts his head, empty eyed expression more haunting then the fact he's wearing Sora's face. “You and I will become one.”

“Oh get over yourself, creep,” Kairi spits with more conviction that she feels. Her heart hurts so much—there's  _Darkness_  in her, crawling through corridors and burning like acid. This is not right, this  _cannot_  be happening—her very cells resist and scream for her to rebel, for her to reject this. “You're  _so_  not my type, not just cause you look like--”

“Why does everything have to be such a struggle?” the Seeker cuts her off with a snap. “This hurts me too, y'know. This isn't how it's supposed to be. I'm supposed to be with  _Ventus_. He's the other half, not you; you're too bright. It's taking everything in me not to burn away.”

Funny. It's taking everything in  _Kairi_  to  _burn_  him away.

“Who are you,” she chokes weakly as another pound of heat makes her knees tremble. “ _What_  are you?”

“ _We_ ,” whispers the Seeker, “are going to be called Vanitas. Not that it matters. We're going to become part of the χ-blade, just as it was foretold. There's no other reason for either of us to exist...your heart was born for this.”

“Oh, shut the hell up--” It feels like a cramp in her chest, and Kairi falls to her knees and claws at her neck and sternum, like she can dig out the injured mess, toss the twisting organ free. Her station rattles ominously, the light shining from beneath it flickering. Vantias scowls in discomfort, one hand idly rubbing at his chest too.

“Sneaky girl,” Vanitas mutters. “You've got a  _pet_.”

The words make Kairi's blood cool in her veins. She pants in terror as Naminé flickers into being between them, sound asleep on her side. Usually she'd be a welcome sight—anything,  _anything_  to keep Naminé from losing herself, from throwing aside her heart—but now Naminé's in so much fucking danger that Kairi's fight or flight is so twined together that nothing positive can bloom.

(Kairi tastes ash on her tongue, smells freshly seared ozone; something's happening outside her body, something she has no control over. She only has a spare thought of concern for it;  _You just hang on, Lea! I'm coming! Just hang on!_  )

“Don't you look at her like that,” Kairi rasps, pulling Destiny's Embrace into her hands and using it to haul herself to her feet. It feels like dragging her body through tar, a struggle for every inch.

“Like  _what?_ ” Vanitas sneers at her display, effortlessly sauntering toward Naminé. His Keyblade manifests in response.

“Not one more fucking step!” Kairi chokes. The Darkness Vanitas brings churns and scrapes at something inside of her heart, hungry for it, but she ignores it as best as she's able, easier as her blood thaws and boils when Vanitas ignores her.

“This won't do,” he says sarcastically, half a growl. Is he  _jealous_? Of  _what_? “You and  _I_  are going to be a singular being. There's no reason for this stowaway to exist.”

He looks up when Kairi lets loose her furious scream, leaping across her station and slamming Destiny's Embrace against his Keyblade once again. Light crackles around her like flames, the heat of it pouring from behind her eyes, her mouth. Vanitas hisses and jerks his head away, pushed back almost to the edge as the station cracks ominously. A jab of his arms sends her flying back where she came, rolling and skidding until she flips onto her feet.

“Keep that up and you'll shatter this pretty heart into pieces!” Vanitas snarls. “What's  _with_  you?!”

“It'd be a waste of time...telling  _you_  why,” Kairi pants. Her vision swims, rights itself, then blurs again. It's getting harder and harder to maintain concentration when her heart feels every clash between her and Vanitas, cracks spilling beneath the soles of her boots. Kairi should worry, but she doesn't. All she has to think about is the vulnerable, sleeping Naminé laying behind her, and she gets her focus back.

“Let me guess. Because of your little friends?” Vanitas cooes mockingly, disgust dripping off every word. “You can save the speech, Princess. I've heard it before.”

“Actually, I was gonna segue that into something about you being a monstrous douchebag,” Kairi quips back.

Vanitas bares his teeth, glaring at her with nothing less than hatred. “ _You wanna say that again?_ ”

“So you picked up Sora's lack of ability to listen to me along with his face,” Kairi muses out loud, provoking. Her left arm starts to throb with the pain and she wavers with every inhale, Keyblade shaking in her grip. It works, though; Vanitas lets out an inhuman, inarticulate scream of rage and a beam of Darkness shoots out of his Keyblade. All Kairi has to do is dodge around it, take advantage, strike true--

_No. I can't._ What would happen to Naminé?

Kairi plants her feet. Grinds her teeth. Forces her lead heavy arm to rise up, angling Destiny's Embrace so that its teeth will slice through the attack that comes at her head on. It does its best; Vanitas's dark beam parts like the sea as it roars against Kairi's Keyblade. She locks her arm in place and screams right back; she's covered in sweat and blood and grime, her boots catching and squeaking at the cracks in her own heart as it struggles to remain whole under the strain of Vanitas's invasion, and the rejection.

It's not perfect. Whiplashes of Darkness roll over Kairi's skin, striking and burning at her with vicious, greedy embers. Destiny's Embrace heats up as the onslaught continues. Her arm almost buckles against the pressure, her muscles strain, and--

\--And then it's over.

Vanitas' arms drop to his sides as he heaves for air, his shoulders smoldering from his attack.

Kairi has a retort for him. A quip. A barb. But everything hurts so much, her body and heart swollen and sore to the core; there's a smirk on Vanitas's lips as Kairi's knees buckle again, as she starts to tilt backwards. In the slow fall, Kairi's mind screams,  _Don't give up! Fight him!_  But she's still training. She has nothing left to give, not now, not after this drawn out brawl. Her heart is tender and close to cracking.

That's when Naminé's arms come around her.

Kairi is caught, gently. Right arm around her chest, hooked beneath both arms to guide her back against Naminé's chest. Left arm coming around to twine with the shaking, raw fingers still clutching Destiny's Embrace. A loud, resonant hum starts in Kairi's head at the contact, and beneath their feet, the cracks in her heart shine with Naminé's light, and mend in an instant.

“Get out,” Naminé says quietly. Kairi cranes her head back; Naminé's eyes are half open, unseeing. Her heart lost in sleep, still, but rousing enough to do this—to  _be_  there, to pick up the slack. Kairi could, and probably does, cry out of sheer relief.

_She's really here_ , Kairi thinks in her exhaustion.  _She's not going anywhere._

"What the fuck is this?” Vanitas croaks. “What's she doing up?”

“I said  _get out._ ” Naminé helps Kairi with Destiny's Embrace, keeping it steady and strong, pointed at Vanitas. “Her heart isn't yours.  _She_ isn't yours.”

Light gathers in the teeth of Destiny's Embrace, strong and fierce, thrumming up and down the blade. It sparkles against their joined hands, and Kairi leans into Naminé. Beaten and bruised and broken bones and all, Kairi's never felt stronger.

“She's  _mine_ ,” Naminé says with all the venom she can muster while still half asleep. The light bursts out of Destiny's Embrace, faster than a blink, and spears through Vanitas. He's gone in an instant, taking his Darkness with him.

The stain on Kairi's station cleans itself along with him, dark flower petals peeling off...and reveal Naminé's image on the other half, reaching with one hand to take Kairi's, the both of them peacefully curled together in sleep. Kairi can't help her short, stilted laugh that blossoms into something like hysteria when she realizes how close she was to losing her heart, her body, her Light, her--

No, no. Whoa. Dangerous road, Kairi cautions herself with a blush.

(Even if Naminé technically got all...sleepy-clingy-possessive first. Technically Kairi's her house. Naminé definitely meant it...like...as a friend. Right? Sure! Yeah. Kairi's going to go with that.)

“Thanks, Naminé,” Kairi whispers, letting her head loll back against Naminé's slender shoulder. Destiny's Embrace fades away, no longer needed. Kairi closes her eyes and smiles when she feels Naminé drop her forehead against Kairi's own, affectionate.

"Thank you,” she breathes, her breath stirring Kairi's bangs which Kairi tries really, really, really hard not to think about in detail, nope. “For keeping me here...”

The world goes fuzzy as Kairi starts to wake up. She hopes she doesn't actually say,  _That's 'cause you're mine, too_ , but really, Naminé already knows that. When Kairi opens her eyes again, back in her body and properly conscious, she's tied to a chair and feels overworked Gummi parts. Lea sits across from her, his Keyblade resting in his lap and ready for use, scowling at her.

Kairi wiggles. Shrieks when her still injured left wrist is jostled, and hollers, “You  _horse's_ _ **ass**_ _,_ you didn't heal me?! Fuck you! Oh my—Fuck, ow ow ow ow--”

“That's her alright,” Riku heaves from behind her. “I'd recognize that foul mouth anywhere.”

Oh, no. Riku is  _definitely_  not here while she's trussed up in chains and mocking her for it. Kairi will be dead in the ground before she lets that stand anymore.

“You skinny twink  _prick,_  come out here where I can see you!” Kairi thrashes on instinct, feels her wrist  _severely_  disagree with that, and nearly bites her tongue off to stifle it. “ _Will someone Cure me please?_   I'm  _dying!_ ”

“Her eyes are blue,” Lea says, voice wary and thin. “And she's not got the legion thing going on anymore.”

"Guys, come on,” Sora says, pained, from the side, “we can untie her already. She's not a...Kairi  _can't_  be a...”

“Cure!” Donald waddles over as he casts the spell, Goofy close behind with a key to get the chains off. They help her out of the chair, concern clear on their faces, as Donald softly quacks, “Are you sure you're alright, Kairi?”

“I mean, yeah.” She flexes her wrist, and aside from a forgettable, lingering ache and the raw, bruised knuckles, she's good to go. “What's the  _deal_? I mean--” She looks to Lea, as he dismisses his Keyblade and stands with her, “We won, right?”

“You got a little wild there, firecracker,” Lea says, his expression unreadable. “One minute, Larxene's about make me into a new pincushion, and next I see is you drop kicking her in the throat and screaming.”

“You know,” Kairi says, after a moment, “that  _sounds_  like me, but I don't remember--”

“Then you tried to decapitate me.”

“ _Also_  sounds like me, but I really don't--”

“Your eyes were gold, Kairi. And you kept talking to yourself.”

Kairi sits back down with a little, terrified,  _huh_. She does a check over her heart, feeling inside for anything that doesn't belong—feels Naminé pulsing back, thoroughly asleep, unharmed and safe. Not a shred of Darkness still inside. “My hair?”

“No silver,” Riku says quietly.

“Woo-hoo,” Kairi says weakly.

She tells them about the experience, about Vanitas and Naminé coming to the rescue. Lea, in turn, tells her that when she wasn't screaming at herself she was fighting both him and Larxene seemingly at random. Then she just dropped like a sack of bricks after a flash of light, and Larxene had vanished.

“One thing's for sure,” Sora says, both his hands over one of Kairi's like he's afraid she'll fade away, “you guys have to find somewhere else to train. If the Organization knows where you guys are...”

“Then your little pocket dimension isn't as secure with just Merlin,” Riku finishes grimly. “We should get you moved to Master Yen Sid's tower as soon as possible. Are you okay to travel, Kairi?”

Kairi hops to both feet, beaming with pride--

“Absolutely. I've never felt better!”

\--And falls flat on her face, fast asleep.


End file.
